Wednesday, August 26, 2015

The Fountain K pen will have its official pre-production release, Thursday, August 27th at Noon, Arizona time (MST, UTC/GMT -7 hours).

This release will be limited to the pre-production pens that were
made to accept Schmidt #5 nibs. For that reason there are a very limited
supply of these pens available.

This configuration will accept nibs purchased to fit your current Karas Kustoms INK in the event you had nibs custom ground.

We will have four finishes available for purchase tomorrow

Anodized Silver (Clear) Aluminum (Approximately 75 Available)

Tumbled Raw Aluminum (Approximately 30 Available)

Brass (Approximately 50 Available)

Copper (Approximately 60 Available)

The Fountain K is identical in size to the Render K. In fact if you
have one of each sitting on your desk capped, they will appear to be the
exact same pen.

Due to our limited numbers some people may miss out on these pens.
We are not limiting the amount one person can buy, so if you want one of
each you can purchase one of each as long as they are in stock.
Likewise, if you want 5 Brass, that’s possible as well.

The quickest way to purchase a Fountain K is to use PayPal as your
means of checkout on our website. This is the easiest, fastest way to
checkout as it doesn’t require you to input any billing information or
credit card information as long as you have a current PayPal account.
Paypal is who processes all sales through our website, we have no other
means of accepting payment. Use “checkout as guest” on the site will
also save you time.

Just adding product to your cart does not reserve the product for
purchase. You have to complete the payment process and receive a
confirmation email to ensure your purchase was successful. Orders over
$120 qualify for free shipping (but hurry they may sell out while you
are adding product to the cart).

In the event that you miss out on this Pre-Production release, we
will be releasing the Production Fountain K before the holidays.

Pricing is as follows:

Anodized Silver (Clear) Aluminum - $70.00

Tumbled Raw Aluminum - $70.00

Brass - $90.00

Copper - $120.00

Orders over $120 qualify for free shipping (but hurry they may sell out while you are adding product to the cart)

This small sale will help us fund the next full production batch of Fountain Ks and further development on other pen projects.

Tuesday, August 18, 2015

Now that the frenzy has passed on the Fountain K Press Release, I figured we could come back to the Karas Kustoms/Karas Pen Co Small Batch Sale. I have added a few more pens that we were able to get Stonewashed this past week. Prices include shipping, refill and spring/spacer kits. Pens come fully assembled. The ReBolts have been pre-modded to work "out of the box". Enough of the disclaimer, on to the sale.

Karas Kustoms Brass Bolt - Blackout - 95.00 USD (3 available)

The Blackout Series is our latest foray into creating unique Small Batch version of the Karas Kustoms pens you have come to know and trust. We rough polish, clean and then hand apply a layer of chemical to black the surface of the brass pens. Due to this being hand applied, no two pens have the same finish and as time and use play with the metal, the finish will change and take on a different appearance unique to your daily writing position. These pens are truly one of a kind. This is our Brass Bolt with Blackout finish, fully functioning with Parker style refill included.

Karas Kustoms Brass Bolt G2 - Blackout - 95.00 USD (4 available)

The Blackout Series is our latest foray into creating unique Small Batch
version of the Karas Kustoms pens you have come to know and trust. We
rough polish, clean and then hand apply a layer of chemical to black the
surface of the brass pens. Due to this being hand applied, no two pens
have the same finish and as time and use play with the metal, the finish
will change and take on a different appearance unique to your daily
writing position. These pens are truly one of a kind. This is our Brass Bolt G2 with Blackout finish, fully functioning with Pilot G2 style refill included.

Karas Kustoms Brass Retrakt - Blackout - SOLD OUT

The Blackout Series is our latest foray into creating unique Small Batch
version of the Karas Kustoms pens you have come to know and trust. We
rough polish, clean and then hand apply a layer of chemical to black the
surface of the brass pens. Due to this being hand applied, no two pens
have the same finish and as time and use play with the metal, the finish
will change and take on a different appearance unique to your daily
writing position. These pens are truly one of a kind. This is our Brass Retrakt with Blackout finish, fully functioning with Pilot G2 style refill included.

Karas Pen Co ReBolt - Red Stonewashed - 70 USD (2 available)

The Stonewashed Series is our initial entrance into Small Batch pen creation. We took existing anodized pens, used a mild abrasive on the anodize, then put them through a long rough tumbling process with specific media and liquid to for a "worn or distressed" look on the pen. The Stonewash finish looks as though the pen has had years of use and carry but remains fully functional. It also softens edges and creates a "softer" texture on the anodize overall. This has been applied to our ReBolt pen, which is a combination of our Retrakt upper barrel with a Bolt lower barrel and a custom modified spacer. This pen is the daily carry pen of Bill Karas, Karas Kustoms Owner and Dan Bishop Karas Kustoms Design Lead. It comes fully functional with a Parker style refill.

The Stonewashed Series is our initial entrance into Small Batch pen
creation. We took existing anodized pens, used a mild abrasive on the
anodize, then put them through a long rough tumbling process with
specific media and liquid to for a "worn or distressed" look on the pen.
The Stonewash finish looks as though the pen has had years of use and
carry but remains fully functional. It also softens edges and creates a
"softer" texture on the anodize overall. This has been applied to our
ReBolt pen, which is a combination of our Retrakt upper barrel with a
Bolt lower barrel and a custom modified spacer. This pen is the daily
carry pen of Bill Karas, Karas Kustoms Owner and Dan Bishop Karas
Kustoms Design Lead. It comes fully functional with a Parker style
refill.

The Stonewashed Series is our initial entrance into Small Batch pen
creation. We took existing anodized pens, used a mild abrasive on the
anodize, then put them through a long rough tumbling process with
specific media and liquid to for a "worn or distressed" look on the pen.
The Stonewash finish looks as though the pen has had years of use and
carry but remains fully functional. It also softens edges and creates a
"softer" texture on the anodize overall. This has been applied to our
ReBolt pen, which is a combination of our Retrakt upper barrel with a
Bolt lower barrel and a custom modified spacer. This pen is the daily
carry pen of Bill Karas, Karas Kustoms Owner and Dan Bishop Karas
Kustoms Design Lead. It comes fully functional with a Parker style
refill.

This isa custom special edition combination. It contains one of our Stonewashed Blue Cubes and a Stonewashed Silver Render K with Stonewashed Blue cap and tip. The above price includes shipping and the corresponding pen refill. These two items are perfect for your work desk or a students dorm room. The only combination like this.

This is a custom special edition combination. It contains one of
our Stonewashed Orange Cubes and a Stonewashed Orange upper barrel Bolt and Blackout Brass lower Bolt and knob. The above price includes shipping and the
corresponding pen refill. These two items are perfect for your work desk
or a students dorm room. Limited supply on these, get them while they last.

Questions concerning Small Batch, One-Off or other non-standard Karas Kustoms items can be directed to info@karaskustoms.com, subject line "Small Batch".

Friday, August 14, 2015

One of the greatest tools that a
manufacturer has is their ability to innovate within their own product line.
The innovation process is one that occurs naturally for any manufacturer that
wishes to remain relevant in today’s ever changing marketplace. Incremental
changes and improvements are inevitable. Smaller production runs are used to “dial
in” manufacturing, establish proof of concept, as well as a way to test market
feasibility of newly created products. We take pride in our ability to innovate
in the realm of pen manufacturing. There are other metal machined pens, many of
them are of high quality and standards, but we were at forefront of innovating
the design and construction of machined metal pens and bringing them back to
the marketplace. This was all made possible for us through crowdfunding and
Kickstarter. It was this same spirit of innovation that led us to decide and
try to move forward without using Kickstarter.

We have been very happy with our partnership with
Kickstarter. The partnership has allowed us to grow our business into what it
is today. We have several extremely successful pen designs that would not have
been possible if it weren’t for the Kickstarter platform. That being said, we
also know that those pens wouldn’t exist if it weren’t for our many backers,
and while Kickstarter allows us to maintain a connection within its
infrastructure, it’s not the same level of connection that a company like ours
seeks to have with its customers. We understand that the waiting process after
pledging to a campaign is not an ideal process for the customer. You have pledged
towards a project and the rewards can sometimes take months to get into your
hands. We don’t like that process either as it causes us a lot of stress as we
work to deliver all rewards on the expected timetable. All of these thoughts
went through our minds as we looked at the Fountain K project and got closer
and closer to a final decision.

As a company, we sat down to have one last look at the
entire Fountain K project before calling it complete and ready to go. We went
over all the data we had gleaned from cost analyses, feedback emails, nib
sourcing emails, and the mountain of customer requests for another machined fountain
pen. As we went through the meeting several things began to dawn on us that
would ultimately influence our decision to move forward with the Fountain K
project on our own.

Primarily, we were left with a small production run of
Fountain K pens after prepping for a Kickstarter launch. After sending out
units for review and internal testing, we were left with enough pens to allow
us to raise enough funds (through direct sales) to equal a modest goal on
Kickstarter. We were staring at pens that were completely done, that we had
photos and video of, and that people were asking for. Our ultimate goal was to
see if consumers were interested in the product, and to gain capital to move
forward with production if the product was viable. We could do this with the
number of pens we had on hand. So that’s what we are going to do.

The Fountain K examples we have are ready to go. They are
what our Kickstarter backers would have received and are very nice pens. We are
looking to change nib suppliers for all of our future pens, so at some point,
some small changes to the Fountain K will occur. This means these pens are
unique and are very limited in number. The sales of these pens will allow us to
produce more in the future, but these will never be made again. By selling this
very small batch, we are in a sense “kickstarting” the project ourselves. This
will mean the next batch will be funded by this seed money and we will have
enough to move into full production moving forward. It is a slower way to do
things, but it allows us more autonomy and the ability to create new products
in a manner we are more comfortable with.

We put a lot of time and effort into all of our pens. But we
put an even greater amount of thought into how we proceed on any particular
project. We have established our reputation by creating high-quality machined
writing instruments and on our top notch customer service. By adding
innovation, adaptability and exceptional product design to the list of things
that are associated with Karas Kustoms, we can only improve our outstanding
reputation. There is only so much we can do on our own to make a pen be
successful, as we rely on our customers to ultimately tell us how successful a
product really is. So we can build it with all of the innovation, quality and
care as we know how, but the decision on whether the pen is truly as successful
lies in their hands.

Karas
Kustoms limited edition pen sales. These pens will be available for
purchase via this blog 8/14/15 at 10am PDT. They will be listed with a
Paypal But It Now button. They will be in limited numbers. Here's the
information.

Karas Kustoms Brass Bolt - Blackout - 95.00 USD
We
are adding a Blackout Series to our special release line that already
includes the Stonewashed Series. We have put the pens through a
"blacking" process to create the Blackout Series.
The Blackout process is all hand applied, and as a result no two pens
will have the same finish. Not only that but over time and use, the
Blackout will change as your pen absorbs the oils from your hands.

Karas Kustoms Brass Bolt G2 - Blackout - 95.00 USD
We are adding a Blackout Series to our special release line that already
includes the Stonewashed Series. We have put the pens through a
"blacking" process to create the Blackout Series.
The Blackout process is all hand applied, and as a result no two pens
will have the same finish. Not only that but over time and use, the
Blackout will change as your pen absorbs the oils from your hands.

Karas Kustoms Brass Retrakt - Blackout - 85.00 USD
We are adding a Blackout Series to our special release line that already
includes the Stonewashed Series. We have put the pens through a
"blacking" process to create the Blackout Series.
The Blackout process is all hand applied, and as a result no two pens
will have the same finish. Not only that but over time and use, the
Blackout will change as your pen absorbs the oils from your hands.

Karas Kustoms Tumbled INK - Early Prototype - 115 USD
This
is an early run prototype of our INK. It features tumbled aluminum
finish with some tooling marks visible and the original section. The
caps are clipless and have a slightly rounded "dome" appearance. These
pens come with K5 Converter and Schmidt Fine Nib. They are fully
functional

Karas Kustoms Render K Orange Stonewashed w/Tumbled Smooth Cap - SOLD OUT
This
is the Stonewashed body version of our Render K. The cap is smooth cap
version in tumbled aluminum. The pen comes with an EasyFlow 9000 and is
ready to write.

Thursday, August 13, 2015

Karas Kustoms limited edition pen sales. These pens will be available for purchase via this blog 8/14/15 at 10am PDT. They will be listed with a Paypal But It Now button. They will be in limited numbers. Here's the information.

Karas Kustoms Brass Bolt - Blackout - 95.00 USD (5 Available)
We are adding a Blackout Series to our special release line that already includes the Stonewashed Series. We have put the pens through a "blacking" process to create the Blackout Series.
The Blackout process is all hand applied, and as a result no two pens
will have the same finish. Not only that but over time and use, the
Blackout will change as your pen absorbs the oils from your hands.

Karas Kustoms Brass Bolt G2 - Blackout - 95.00 USD (5 Available)
We are adding a Blackout Series to our special release line that already
includes the Stonewashed Series. We have put the pens through a
"blacking" process to create the Blackout Series.
The Blackout process is all hand applied, and as a result no two pens
will have the same finish. Not only that but over time and use, the
Blackout will change as your pen absorbs the oils from your hands.

Karas Kustoms Brass Retrakt - Blackout - 85.00 USD (5 Available)
We are adding a Blackout Series to our special release line that already
includes the Stonewashed Series. We have put the pens through a
"blacking" process to create the Blackout Series.
The Blackout process is all hand applied, and as a result no two pens
will have the same finish. Not only that but over time and use, the
Blackout will change as your pen absorbs the oils from your hands.

Karas Kustoms Tumbled INK - Early Prototype - 115 USD (9 Available)
This is an early run prototype of our INK. It features tumbled aluminum finish with some tooling marks visible and the original section. The caps are clipless and have a slightly rounded "dome" appearance. These pens come with K5 Converter and Schmidt Fine Nib. They are fully functional

Karas Kustoms Render K Orange Stonewashed w/Tumbled Smooth Cap - 65.00 USD (4 Available)
This is the Stonewashed body version of our Render K. The cap is smooth cap version in tumbled aluminum. The pen comes with an EasyFlow 9000 and is ready to write.

Wednesday, August 5, 2015

The Cube is finally here. Yes that Cube, the Karas
Kustoms/Dudek Modern Goods CUBE, sometimes referred to as the CU13E, that’s the
one. After months of going back and forth hoping to get colors right we were
able to ship out the Kickstarter backers, and have a little bit left over. Well
we have a lot of the Silver and Tumbled Aluminum. We have very limited
quantities of the colors and decided to a do some small numbers of Stonewashed
colors as well. Here’s the biggest reason you want to act NOW as far as a Cube
is concerned. If you want a color and not Tumbled or Silver, these are
potentially the only colors we are ever going to do. While that might change if
our anodizer can fix his application process, at this time we are not sending
any Cubes to be anodized until we feel comfortable that they can be completed
without needing to be done multiple times.

What does that mean? It means that once we are sold out of
the specific color batches that we initially made during the Kickstarter campaign
that color is potentially done forever. We held back a few colored Cubes for
giveaways, but when the site says zero, that means we are finished on those
colors. I know that’s not what our customers want to hear, trust me when I say,
that’s not what we want to tell our customers. We wanted to be able to provide
Cubes that would match our existing pens or at least come close. That didn’t
happen, not only did it not happen, there were some colors we had to have
redone three and four times before we could fulfill the Kickstarter.

The good news is that we will continue to work with our
anodizer to find some resolution for this. We aren’t going to abandon the
colors for our pens, we will continue to provide colors that you have come to
associate with our pens. With that being said, we are going to be adding a few
colors to our current lineup. We will be adding a Brown and an OD Green. These
will be available very soon on our current lineup of Aluminum pens. I love both
colors, they really provide some cool options and looks with mix and matching
your parts combinations, and just look slick on their own. We will have these
available VERY soon.

Fountain pen news. Design changes have been finalized for
the Fountain K. Now those design changes are being machined into a few
prototypes so we can test the functionality of our pens and see if the changes
we made actually made a difference as far as comfort and ease of use is
concerned. It’s a process but we are moving along at a decent clip with this
project trying to get it ready to go into full production.

In the meantime we will be releasing a new batch of INK
fountain pens in all of your favorite colors. Most likely these will be
finished towards the middle of September so you can get the colors that you
have wanted for so long now. I know it’s been a while since we have had some of
the colors in stock and we are working on getting the INKs done as quickly as
possible. We made some design changes on the INK as well. We changed the screw
profile for the clip so that the clip will sit flush against the cap. This
design feature was something that we didn’t know we needed but looking back at
our First Generation INKs it is clear that we needed to make this adjustment.
There are a few other design changes that we will release closer to the actual
release of the Second Generation INKs so be on the lookout for that.

Last bit of news for this week is what I consider a BIG
piece of news. With the redesign of the Fountain K, we made the decision to
move away from Schmidt nibs and pursue another nib for this pen. We looked at
all available nibs, got samples, modded pens with those samples then Dan, Bill
and myself went about writing with the nibs to see which one consistently provided
the best writing experience. Sure we looked at price and a few other factors,
but honestly we were looking for overall writing experience when it came to
switching nibs. It’s been about a month now, and we have come to a consensus
that Peter Bock AG makes the best triple system nib units available. That being
the case we are designing the Fountain K around the Bock triple nib unit. With
that in mind we have made the decision not to use Schmidt nibs on our production Fountain Ks, but to use Peter Bock nibs on all of our production Fountain K pens.

What does that mean for our past Schmidt customers?

We will continue to provide service on your pens, and we
have a decent amount of Schmidt nibs left if you find yourself needing a
Schmidt nib. We will continue to sell them on our website until we sell out of
them, and we can refer people to places that will continue to sell Schmidt nibs
when we do run out. I know a LOT of you are going to have questions about this.
You can direct those questions to info@karaskustoms.com
and we will try to answer all of your questions as quickly as possible.

Just a quick note on something that has come up recently. If
you compare and contrast our pens with the pens you can purchase in a
department store, online or even the majority of pens in an office supply store
you won’t find a whole lot of similarities beyond the fact that they are both
pens. I liken our pens to an automobile, a skateboard, a bicycle or numerous
other items that can be modded, tricked out or specialized. There are a lot of
swaps you can do with our pens to make them write differently or perform within
specific refill considerations. Also there is a permanence in our pens that
other don’t have. Here’s the point; bikes, cars and even skateboards need tune
ups from time to time. Your Karas Pen Co pen might get to a point that it needs
a tune up. We can and will do those tune up and adjustments for you if you can’t
do them on your own. Most of the time a little maintenance with some compressed
air and potentially some WD-40 will fix your issue, but every now and again you
might need our help. If that’s the case please reach out to at the above listed
email address. We want your pen to continue to work well past your lifetime and
to become a family heirloom, and if that means we need to provide some service
for that pen, then we are going to help you with that.